


A Candlenights in Rockport

by saintsaint



Series: "Boy Detective" Is Reductive, Sirs [1]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, my boy! my beautiful magic boy!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-17
Updated: 2016-11-17
Packaged: 2018-08-31 12:17:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8578279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saintsaint/pseuds/saintsaint
Summary: Angus McDonald did his best to agree with his parents and please them, but there were some expectations of which he fell short. According to his parents, one of these areas was entirely the fault of his grandfather.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I have not written fanfiction in more than 10 years, but I love Angus McDonald. I wrote this bc I was trying to write something else and I guess this needed to come out first.

Angus's parents expected the best from their only child. The best were intelligent, honest, and upper-class; Angus, his parents had decided, had the potential to be the best of the best, and so they would ensure that he would be. From a young age -- that is, a  _ very _ young age, younger perhaps than his friends might think -- Angus had been trained and tutored by the best teachers his parents could afford, as well as some who were  _ better  _ than his parents could afford.

His parents, of course, were not cruel. They were simply distant, worried always with appearance. Angus meant a lot to them: he was a naturally gifted child whose intelligence they believed could pull the McDonalds out of the downward economic spiral they had entered several years ago. With the proper training and pressure, they were certain that young Angus McDonald would grow to be the perfect heir.

Angus himself did his best to agree with his parents and please them, but there were some expectations of which he fell short. According to his parents, one of these areas was entirely the fault of his grandfather.

On Candlenights one year, the eldest McDonald traveled to visit Angus and his parents at their manor in Rockport. The evening has been going well: dinner had been deliciously prepared for them by one of the few remaining servants of the house, the conversation had been formal and polite, and practical gifts were in the process of being exchanged when Angus’s grandfather had handed him a wrapped present.

Angus, knowing by its weight and size that it was another book, had smiled graciously and said thank you even before he had entirely pulled off the wrapping paper. As he wondered what subject his grandfather might wish for him to learn about, the delicate wrapping paper fell to the ground and Angus stared at the cover of the novel he held in his hands.

The cover depicted a boy a few years older than Angus himself, holding a magnifying glass and smiling proudly as around him what looked to be an entire town seemed to cheer for him. It was entitled  _ Caleb Clalloway, Kid Cop _ . Angus blinked once, twice, and look up at his grandfather. The old man smiled at him as Angus’s father reached quickly over and pressed a different present into Angus’s hands, displacing the unusual present and distracting him enough that his mother could pull it gently out of the small pile of other books Angus had received that night.

Later that evening, the elder McDonalds argued in hushed tones in the dining room over dessert while Angus sat in front of the fire, reading a heavy tome his mother had given him about the history of trade in Neverwinter. Angus was permitted strawberries as a healthy, pre-bedtime snack while the adults spoke over their thick slices of dark chocolate cake topped with rich, hand-whipped cream, hissing things back and forth across the long, ornate dining table. 

Fiction was inappropriate for a child of Angus’s intelligence and potential, his parents argued. His grandfather argued back, claiming that learning about something beyond the walls of their manor would be good for him. The two sides refused to back down, until at last the conversation ended with the agreement that the book would be hidden for the remainder of Angus’s grandfather’s stay at the house, and upon his departure he would be required to take the book with him.

A few terse moments later and Angus’s grandfather stood up from the table to excuse himself to bed. Angus carefully marked his page (mid-way through a chapter on the various railroad systems that criss-crossed Faerun) and hopped up to say goodnight, but his grandfather had already walked stiffly off.

That evening when Angus went to bed he discovered that, per the agreement with his son and daughter-in-law, his grandfather had indeed hidden  _ Caleb Calloway, Kid Cop _ . Angus’s parents were unlikely to find it, as it was in a room they rarely visited. Angus, however, found it quite quickly, as it was hidden beneath his pillow.

Angus pulled the book out carefully, eyes wide. Holding his breath, his hands traced the image of the proud boy on the cover as he reverently opened the book to its first page -- and out fell a small note. He recognized his grandfather’s looping script:  _ Your parents tell me you are a fast reader, Angus. I hope this is true. Please be sure to check underneath your bed as well. Enjoy the book, and happy Candlenights to you. _

Immediately Angus placed the book and the note down and grabbed up a candle, peeking his head underneath his bed.

There, wrapped carefully, was a slim slice of chocolate cake.


End file.
